There is such power in theatre, and it was no more evident than on Monday night through our wonderful sixth form cast as they performed Who Will Carry The Word? at The Egg Theatre, Bath. 

Who Will Carry the Word? is a 1983 Holocaust play by French writer and survivor Charlotte Delbo. Drawing on her own experiences in the French Resistance and her imprisonment in Auschwitz-Berkenau, the play follows twenty-three female political prisoners as they struggle to survive unimaginable conditions while holding onto their humanity.

At its core is a shared, urgent purpose: that at least one of them must live to “carry the word”, to bear witness and tell the story of what happened.

Focusing on a group of non-Jewish French women in the concentration camp, Delbo’s work powerfully explores endurance, solidarity, and the moral responsibility of remembrance, asking not only how people survive such brutality, but how their stories are preserved and passed on to the world.

I am extremely proud of the cast for this production as it confronts one of the darkest chapters in human history. Auschwitz is a place that resists comprehension, where language often fails and numbers cannot begin to hold the weight of individual lives lost, fractured, or forever changed. And yet, I believe it is important that we bring this story to the stage.

Why theatre? Because theatre is alive. It breathes in the same space as its audience. It asks us not simply to observe, but to witness. In an age where history can feel distant or abstract, theatre has the rare power to restore immediacy, to place us, emotionally and morally, in the presence of the past. It transforms memory into encounter. We revisit the stories of Charlotte and her companions not to dwell in suffering, but to honour them. The testimonies of survivors are not relics of history; they are urgent voices that call across generations. As time moves forward and fewer witnesses remain, the responsibility to carry their stories becomes ours.

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2026, Bridging Generations, is a call to action. It reminds us that the responsibility of remembrance does not end with the survivors; it lives on through their children, their grandchildren, and through all of us. This production was not intended to offer comfort. It was intended to remind. To remind us of the consequences of indifference, of prejudice left unchecked, of systems that dehumanise. It asked us to look, even when it is difficult, because turning away is how such histories risk being repeated or forgotten.

To Daisy, Freya, Charlotte, Flo, Amelie, Maddie, Cordelia, Helena, Astrid, Imogen and Evie, thank you for your performance.

To Mr Jerram, Ruby and Katherine, thank you for your technical support.

To our audience, thank you for bearing witness, memory is an act of responsibility and that responsibility belongs to all of us. We cannot undo the past. But by remembering it, especially now, with the world as it is, and by refusing to let these stories fade, we can shape the future.